In 2004, visual artists joe average & jamie griffiths entered into a creative therapeutic photography process, to allow joe to explore his experience of living and coping with Lipoatrophy caused by antiretroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS. In joe's 27th year living with HIV/AIDS, this short film, 'I See The Fear' walks the audience into his creative process with friend and photo-collaborator, jamie griffiths. Joe's inner state of mind (poems and diary entries) fuse with digital-photo manipulations to bring home the message that society needs to address the fear & stigmatization at the root of the isolation experienced by the side effects of AIDS medications.

"He's been called the Andy Warhol of Vancouver.
His name is Joe Average - and his joyful art, public generosity and flamboyant presence- have distinguished him as anything but average.
Throughout the 80's and 90's Joe Average took an artist's brush to his often grey and rain-soaked city - and painted it technicolour. His art was festooned on street banners and bridges... public squares, markets and meeting places.
All this exuberance from a man who is one of the longest surviving Canadians with HIV/AIDS. Twenty-seven years ago - when he was diagnosed with the then-unknown, terrifying and often fatal virus - the young Joe Average made a vow to make his living solely from his art. And he succeeded. His images have been used for International AIDS conferences; on postage stamps and hang in public private collections around the world.
But today Joe Average is close to running out of income. And he has become a virtual recluse.
He has 'lipoatrophy' - a particularly ghoulish and debilitating side-effect of anti-retro viral drugs....a condition that eats away body fat. At five-feet-eight-inches tall - Joe now weighs just over 100 pounds.
Ten years ago, at a particularly tough moment in his struggle with AIDS, Joe put down his paintbrush. He hasn't picked it up since.
But - ever the creator - Joe Average has recently begun a different kind of art - in shades of grey and dark shadows - that reflects his new reality. Here is 'The Incredible Shrinking Man'."

LIMITED EDITION PRINT

In January 2011 Joe and jamie released the first limited edition print from the collaborative photography work. This first print is the iconic image from the film 'I See The Fear' and is titled 'Skullface'. This very special edition only numbers 27, one print for each year that joe has been living with HIV/AIDS.